Pocket Comics #1
☆ Be the first to review + Add to your collection — Join freePocket Comics #1 is a genuine landmark of the Golden Age: it served as the debut publication of Alfred Harvey's nascent Harvey Comics imprint and simultaneously introduced the Black Cat — Linda Turner, Hollywood actress turned masked crime-fighter — making her one of the earliest costumed superheroines in American comics, arriving several months ahead of Wonder Woman's own debut later in 1941. The issue also introduced a clutch of other Golden Age characters (Spirit of '76, the Phantom Sphinx, Red Blazer, and the Zebra) who would migrate to other Harvey titles after the series folded. Beyond its character debuts, Pocket Comics #1 is historically significant as one of the medium's earliest experiments with a digest-sized format, a formal innovation that wouldn't find lasting commercial traction until decades later but points directly toward the digest boom of the 1970s–80s.
In the shadow of West Point, Gary—bound by family duty but still a cadet—steps into a fight far beyond the drill field when he learns the Luftwaffe’s Captain Hoch and his "Khaki Shirts" are plotting to destroy the academy with explosives. With no time to wait for graduation, Gary must use his training and courage to stop the sabotage before it's too late.
In the glamorous shadows of 1941 Hollywood, actress Linda Turner sheds her starlet persona to become the mysterious Black Cat, driven by suspicion that her director, Garboil, is a Nazi spy. When reporter Rick Horne, chasing his own leads on Garboil’s schemes, crosses paths with the masked vigilante, neither trusts the other—until they realize they’re after the same enemy. Together, they navigate a web of deception and danger, testing their instincts and their growing alliance.
In "null," Dr. Salle and his team uncover a forgotten tomb housing the mummified remains of General Amron, frozen in a centuries-long sleep by his father’s ancient spell. When the ruthless bandit Norton murders the expedition and uses the Star Sirius pebble to awaken the mummy, the long-dormant warrior rises as the Phantom Sphinx, driven by a forgotten vow to right old wrongs.
In the shadow of war, Agent 99 arrives in Belgrade under the guise of an American reporter, his mission clear: protect a young girl from the ever-watchful eye of the Gestapo. As the streets grow tense and danger lurks around every corner, his cover is tested and his resolve put to the test.
John Doyle, wrongfully convicted and sentenced to death, escapes from prison to clear his name—only to find his girlfriend Jo taken by criminals who think she holds the key to the real murderer. Written by an unknown author and illustrated by an unknown artist, this 1941 thriller blends noir tension with early superhero grit, as Doyle races against time to uncover the truth before it’s too late.
ComicBooks.com Value
Show all 13 grades ▾
More listings for this title
Sell my copy
Have this issue — or a whole collection? Get a fair offer from us, skip the marketplace fees and the hassle.
We Buy Collections ▸History
Publisher Alfred Harvey conceived Pocket Comics as a smaller-than-standard, digest-sized comic running a full 100 pages at the standard ten-cent price — a format he believed would be a novelty advantage. According to Joe Simon's memoir My Life in Comics (as quoted in Bleeding Cool), Harvey's offices were in the same Midtown Manhattan building as Fawcett Comics, and Simon — already working simultaneously on Captain America for Timely — did the cover of issue #1 as a personal favor, recruiting Al Avison (a fellow Captain America studio artist) to handle interior features; Alfred Harvey and Al Gabriele created the Black Cat strip, with writer Otto Binder (using his 'Eando Binder' pseudonym) scripting the Satan feature. The format's fatal flaw was practical rather than creative: the small books slipped easily into buyers' pockets, newsstand vendors refused to carry them, and Harvey abandoned the format after just four issues, reverting to the standard comic-book size for all subsequent titles.
Trivia · 8 facts
- First appearance and origin of the Black Cat (Linda Turner), created by Alfred Harvey and artist Al Gabriele — she is among the earliest female costumed superheroes in the American comic-book medium, debuting before Wonder Woman.
- First appearance of the Spirit of '76 (Gary Blakely), a West Point cadet who draws on his family's Revolutionary War heritage to battle Nazi saboteurs attempting to dynamite West Point.
- First appearance of the Red Blazer, a science-fiction-inflected hero: cowboy Jack Dawson is transformed by astro-pyro rays from a returning Mars explorer's spacecraft and gains the power of flight and heat-based superpowers.
- First appearance of the Phantom Sphinx (General Amron), an Egyptian mage revived from a 6,000-year hypnotic sleep who uses ancient magic for good, and of the Zebra, a stripe-wearing vigilante.
- Cover art by Joe Simon (pencils and inks), who confirmed the commission in his memoir, noting he worked from a publisher-provided mock-up and did it largely as a favor to Alfred Harvey.
- The issue's Satan feature was scripted by Otto Binder under the 'Eando Binder' pseudonym — the collaborative pen name he had shared with his brother Earl — with art attributed to Pierce Rice; Binder would go on to write some of the most influential Superman and Supergirl stories of the Silver Age.
- Physical format: approximately 5 in. × 8 in. (digest-sized), 100 full-color pages — substantially taller in page count than any standard Golden Age comic but small enough to be slipped into a coat pocket, which led directly to newsstand theft and the title's cancellation after four issues.
- The entire four-issue run (August 1941 – January 1942) is in the public domain today, as Harvey Comics never renewed the relevant copyrights after pivoting away from superhero material toward children's humor titles.
Full credits
Reprints
Reprinted in Speed Comics #17 (1942), Green Hornet Comics #7 (7) (1942), The Original Black Cat #6 (1991), Alfred Harvey's Black Cat (The Origins) #1 (1995), Golden-Age Greats Spotlight #6 (2011), Men of Mystery Comics #88 (2012), Men of Mystery Comics #87 (2012), The Golden Age #2 (2025)
Reviews
Reader reviews
No reader reviews yet.